A windrow is a row of cut (mowed) hay

Hay

Hay is grass, legumes or other herbaceous plants that have been cut, dried, and stored for use as animal fodder, particularly for grazing livestock such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep. Hay is also fed to pets such as rabbits and guinea pigs...

 or small grain crop. It is allowed to dry before being baled, combined, or rolled. For hay, the windrow is often formed by a hay rake

Hay rake

A hay rake is an agricultural rake used to collect cut hay or straw into windrows for later collection . It is also designed to fluff up the hay and turn it over so that it may dry. It is also used in the evening to protect the hay of the dew...

, which rakes hay that has been cut by a mower

Mower

A mower is a machine for cutting grass or other plants that grow on the ground. Usually mowing is distinguished from reaping, which uses similar implements, but is the traditional term for harvesting grain crops, e.g...

 machine or by scythe

Scythe

A scythe is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass, or reaping crops. It was largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor machinery, but is still used in some areas of Europe and Asia. The Grim Reaper is often depicted carrying or wielding a scythe...

 into a row, or it may naturally form as the hay is mowed. For small grain crops which are to be harvested, the windrow is formed by swather

Swather

A swather, or windrower, is a farm implement that cuts hay or small grain crops and forms them into a windrow. "Swather" is predominantly the North American term for these machines...

 which both cuts the crop and forms the windrow.

By analogy, the term may also be applied to a row of any other material such as snow, earth, etc. In the case of snow, windrows are created by snow plows as they plow streets. The windrow may block driveway

Driveway

A driveway is a type of private road for local access to one or a small group of structures, and is owned and maintained by an individual or group....

s. Some municipalities have windrow removal service where a smaller plow goes to each individual driveway to clear the windrow. Most cities simply make the home owner clear the windrow to their own driveway. A few cities will plow the windrow to the center of the street, blow the snow into trucks, and haul it away. Windrows made of snow are also called berm

Berm

A berm is a level space, shelf, or raised barrier separating two areas. Berm originates in the Middle Dutch and German berme and came into usage in English via French.- History :...

s or more commonly, snow banks. A windrow can also be the build-up of material on the edge of newly graded earthworks and dirt roads, or it can be a heap of road-building material laid down by a dump truck

Dump truck

A dump truck is a truck used for transporting loose material for construction. A typical dump truck is equipped with a hydraulically operated open-box bed hinged at the rear, the front of which can be lifted up to allow the contents to be deposited on the ground behind the truck at the site of...

 for collection by a paving machine

Paver (vehicle)

A paver is an engineering vehicle used to lay asphalt on roadways. It is normally fed by a dump truck. A separate machine, a roller, is then used to press the hot asphalt mix, resulting a smooth, even surface...

.

Windrows of seaweed

Seaweed

Seaweed is a loose, colloquial term encompassing macroscopic, multicellular, benthic marine algae. The term includes some members of the red, brown and green algae...

 etc also form on the surface of lake

Lake

A lake is a body of relatively still fresh or salt water of considerable size, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land. Lakes are inland and not part of the ocean and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are larger and deeper than ponds. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams,...

s or sea

Sea

A sea generally refers to a large body of salt water, but the term is used in other contexts as well. Most commonly, it means a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, and is commonly used as a synonym for ocean...

s due to cylindrical Langmuir circulation

Langmuir circulation

Langmuir circulation is a wind driven helix circulation in the ocean with the axis almost parallel to the wind. Irving Langmuir discovered this phenomenon after noticing windrows of seaweed in the Sargasso Sea in 1938....

 just under the surface caused by the action of the wind. Windrows of soil are often used in large scale vermicompost

Vermicompost

Vermicompost is the product or process of composting utilizing various species of worms, usually red wigglers, white worms, and earthworms to create a heterogeneous mixture of decomposing vegetable or food waste, bedding materials, and vermicast...

ing systems. Municipalities that collect raked-up leaves ask that their citizens rake their leaves into windrows along and above the curb